He was a wayward teenager whose father believed he was plagued by evil spirits. Now Carlos Acosta is a world-class ballet star  but he still dances like a man possessed

Carlos Acosta remembers icons, candles and other offerings to Santeria deities jostling for space in every corner of his childhood home in a poor Havana neighbourhood. His father was, and still is, a devotee of the Afro-Cuban religion. The orisha, or divinity, to whom his father prayed most often was the warrior god Ogun. Time after time, when Carlos is asked to retrace the path that led him from the backstreets of Havana to the forefront of classical ballet - the 31-year-old is now one of the most highly acclaimed dancers of our time, and the only black dancer of such international stature - the father who fought to keep him dancing emerges as the most critical influence on his life. Acosta's story is invariably then portrayed as a classic rags-to-riches tale. Some have described him as "the Billy Elliot of Havana". That his trajectory far outstrips any such imagined script is